Portsmouth to step up Fratton Park redevelopment with work on North Stand Lower to start in January

Evidence of the next stage of the club’s £11.5 million redevelopment of their 112-year-old home will been seen in the week leading up to Wigan’s scheduled visit to PO4 on Saturday, January 9, with work taking place across the whole of blocks A-E.

As a result, this area of the ground will be closed from the new year.

It is expected this work will be completed in May 2022, with attention then commencing on Blocks F-K over the summer.

More information will be communicated to supporters seated in Blocks F-K should this work have any impact on the start of the 2022-23 season.

In the meantime, the club have set up a North Lower season ticket holder working group with a number of affected supporters to try to deliver the best solution to this complex process.

SEE ALSO: Michael Eisner's grand North Stand vision for Fratton Park - and the pivotal role Portsmouth's rebuilt North Stand lower will play

This latest phase of the Fratton Park redevelopment project will ensure Pompey can restore 100-per-cent capacity to this area of the ground, as well as improve levels and sightlines throughout the stand.

Currently, around a quarter of seats in the North Lower are out of action due to safety issues.

Meanwhile, new seating has been installed in the North Stand’s upper section,

The work will also deliver 12 new spaces for wheelchair users and their personal assistants, add kiosks, increase milling areas in the concourses and increase WC toilet facilities for female supporters.

Safety will be enhanced through wider staircases, additional safety barriers, renewed LED lighting and electrical works.

There will be a net increase of 600 seats across the North Lower, representing another step towards increasing capacity across Fratton Park.

Season ticket holders in Blocks A-E will need to select a new seat for home fixtures from January 8 until the end of the current season.

The club have today written to those season ticket holders who are affected to take them through their options from January and the process to confirm seats.

Those season ticket holders in Blocks F-K will be unaffected during this period.

When the works are completed, the club will, in March, write to all season ticket holders again to ensure that they can continue to sit with friends and family, and have the same view (ie, areas towards the front or back and aisle seats) wherever appropriate, so that nobody is removed from the area where they may have enjoyed watching Pompey from for several years.

Information on how supporters in Blocks A-E can select a new seat can be found on the club’s website.